They were especially freaked out over a single footnote in the bulletin:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly
divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily
hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic
groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting
federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting
government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration.

The report further detailed some of the antigovernment belief systems
it was warning about, and how they would exploit the current
circumstances:

Historically, domestic rightwing extremists have feared,
predicted, and anticipated a cataclysmic economic collapse in the United
States. Prominent antigovernment conspiracy theorists have incorporated
aspects of an impending economic collapse to intensify fear and
paranoia among like-minded individuals and to attract recruits during
times of economic uncertainty. Conspiracy theories involving
declarations of martial law, impending civil strife or racial conflict,
suspension of the U.S. Constitution, and the creation of citizen
detention camps often incorporate aspects of a failed economy.
Antigovernment conspiracy theories and “end times” prophecies could
motivate extremist individuals and groups to stockpile food, ammunition,
and weapons. These teachings also have been linked with the
radicalization of domestic extremist individuals and groups in the past,
such as violent Christian Identity organizations and extremist members
of the militia movement.

The bulletin, it turns out, could have been describing Jerry Kane.

C&L was one of the first news organizations
to report that last Thursday's shootout in West Memphis, Arkansas,
involved a far-right extremist named Jerry Kane and his 16-year-old son
Joe, acting evidently on the paranoid belief systems they had been
traveling the country promoting.

Now more details are emerging about Kane. And the portrait that is
emerging is one that's becoming all too familiar: Yet another "sovereign
citizen" radicalized by far-right belief systems, fully convinced that
the American government and its laws are illegitimate, which gives them
the right to act beyond the law.

And once they move beyond the law, anything is possible. This is why
we've seen so many "sovereign citizens" acting out violently now, from Scott Roeder, the killer of Dr. Tiller, to James Von Brunn,
the Holocaust Museum shooter, to Jerry Kane. This is also why we're
seeing so many police officers -- seven in the past year alone -- mowed
down by these far-right radicals.

The first firm details came in an Associated Press report that described some of Kane's wanderings and previous brushes with the law:

Jerry Kane, who used the Internet to question federal and
local government authority over him, made money holding
debt-elimination seminars around the country. He had a long police
record and had recently complained about being arrested at what he
called a “Nazi checkpoint” near Carrizozo, N.M., where court records
showed he spent three days in jail on charges of driving without a
license and concealing his identity before posting a $1,500 bond.

Sheriff Gene Kelly of Clark County, Ohio, told The Associated Press
on Friday that he had issued a warning to officers on July 21, 2004,
saying that Mr. Kane might be dangerous to law enforcement officers.
Sheriff Kelly said he had based his conclusion on a conversation the two
men had had about a sentence Mr. Kane had received for some traffic
violations.

Sheriff Kelly said that Mr. Kane complained in 2004 about being
sentenced to six days of community service for driving with an expired
license plate and no seat belt, saying that the judge had tried to
“enslave” him. Mr. Kane had added that he was a “free man” and had asked
for $100,000 per day in gold or silver.

“I feel that he is expecting and prepared for confrontations with any
law enforcement officer that may come in contact with him,” Sheriff
Kelly wrote in his warning to officers.

On an Internet radio show, Mr. Kane expressed outrage about his New
Mexico arrest. “I ran into a Nazi checkpoint in the middle of New Mexico
where they were demanding papers or jail,” he said. “That was the
option. Either produce your papers or go to jail. So I entered into
commerce with them under threat, duress and coercion, and spent 47 hours
in there.”

Mr. Kane said he planned to file a counterclaim alleging kidnapping
and extortion. “I already have done a background check on him,” he said
of the arresting officer. “I found out where he lives, his address, his
wife’s name.”

According to the the Knoxville News, Kane's seminar videos included threats against federal officials:

Jerry Kane traveled the country with his son giving
seminars on what he called "mortgage fraud" and offering advice on
foreclosure strategies. A website promoting those seminars provided a
trove of information -- audio files and YouTube videos and links to
various documents -- detailing his world views.

One particularly chilling YouTube clip involves Kane fielding a
question about a "rogue" Internal Revenue Service agent: "Violence
doesn't solve anything, OK. It's not violence that we're after. The
Bible even tells us that if you're going to go and make war against
somebody, you have to kill their sheep and their goats and their
chickens and their babies and their wives. OK?"

In the YouTube video he said, "You have to kill them all. So what
we're after here is not fighting, it's conquering. I don't want to have
to kill anybody, but if they keep messing with me, that's what it's
going to have to come out. That's what it's going to come down to, is
I'm going to have to kill. And if I have to kill one, then I'm not going
to be able to stop, I just know it."

In that video, he and Joe joke about using a bat to "take care of" a problem with an IRS agent.

Redemption theory varies across the country but arose in
the Patriot movement, which generally sees the federal government as an
evil entity involved in various conspiracy theories aimed at ordinary
Americans. In its best known version, redemption theory claims that
every U.S. citizen has a "straw man," or secret legal twin, that the
government uses to capture the economic value of citizens unknowingly
sold into slavery to a banking cabal. Redemptionists often claim that by
filing certain documents individuals can reclaim their sovereignty and
the money that was deposited into a special account at their birth. Kane
appeared to be teaching a variant of the theory that supposedly allowed
people who have lost their homes to foreclosure to get them back at a
fraction of their value.

In addition, the My Private Audio site, apparently written by a
friend of Kane and his son, talks about how Kane was pulled over in New
Mexico last month for not having a driver's license. Many Patriots who
call themselves "sovereign citizens" do not believe they are required to
carry driver's licenses, pay taxes, or obey most laws. The site also
carried other signs of Patriot beliefs, including discussions of
implantable microchips and the Council of Foreign Relations, an object
of much Patriot conspiracy theorizing.

In 2002 and again in 2004, property owned by the Kanes
was foreclosed on, according to court records, and the health department
sued him twice. In 2007, Hope Kane died of complications related to
pneumonia.

By then, Mr. Kane was already involved in what the Anti-Defamation
League and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which study hate groups,
call the Patriot movement or the “sovereign citizen movement,” extreme
groups that believe the government has no legitimate authority. The van
Mr. Kane was driving was registered to the House of God’s Prayer at 132
W. Main Street, in New Vienna, Ohio, a vacant building that is owned by
an aging white supremacist.

J. J. MacNab, an insurance analyst and expert on tax and financial
frauds who has closely watched sovereignty groups for a decade, said she
had found 141 vehicles registered to that address under different
names, including several church names, indicating that people were
probably using it as a way to shelter property from the I.R.S.

...

Jim Jenkins, a former mortgage broker in Seattle who attended one of
Mr. Kane’s seminars in April, said that Mr. Kane had been largely
congenial, but that his anger had flared when he recalled a traffic stop
earlier that month in New Mexico. Mr. Kane was arrested and jailed on
charges of driving while his license was suspended or revoked and
concealing his identity.

“He was very upset for quite a while about the New Mexico stop,” Mr.
Jenkins said, “because he didn’t believe you need a license to travel in
the nation’s highways. That that is a right of every American, not a
privilege.”

In a clip from an Internet radio show, Mr. Kane accused the New
Mexico officers of kidnapping him from a “Nazi checkpoint” and said he
had done a background check on the arresting officer. “I found out where
he lives, his address, his wife’s name,” he said.

In a video of one of his seminars, which was removed from YouTube
over the weekend, Mr. Kane responded to reports of a zealous I.R.S.
agent by twice suggesting that she be found and beaten up. Joseph said,
“If you pay for the bat, I’ll take care of the problem.”
Mr. Kane also referred to a earlier problem with alcohol, saying: “I
don’t want to kill anybody but if they keep messing with me, that’s what
it’s going to come down to. And if I have to kill one, then I’m not
going to be able to stop. I just know it, I mean, I have an addictive
personality.”

Ms. MacNab said Mr. Kane had first appeared on her radar about four
years ago as a promoter of the debt-elimination program run by the
Dorean Group, whose leaders have since been convicted of fraud and
conspiracy.

Two years ago, she said, he resurfaced as the leader of his own
seminars. Seminars of this type usually teach that each person has a
real self and a “corporate self” that is a fabrication of the
government, and that banks cannot legitimately lend money that belongs
to their depositors.

It's about Richard Poplawski.
And the dozens, if not hundreds, of little latent Poplawskis out there,
waiting to pop off and kill more police officers, or just as likely, a
crowd of innocent bystanders.

But you'll notice that all the people who were squawking loudly about
the DHS bulletin a year ago are being terribly quiet about this case.

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.